A Man and his Penguin

After reading the Linux Format article about how to do stuff with KDE 4, I decided to install it on my desktop.

Wow. Just wow. This is a very polished desktop, and I expect it would be better if I had a full KDE installation. (I’ve only got the core components at the moment).

Kwin needs some serious work on its performance. With compositing enabled the desktop runs very slowly. Some animations I simply don’t see because it simply skips all the frames, whereas Compiz speeds things up. But oh yes, my next Ubuntu will be Kubuntu.

The manager is going on holiday again, but this time we’re getting a substitute. The rule now is: I’m not even allowed to look at the computer while she’s there.

Well, I’m going to follow this rule. When the new girl gets completely muddled up and needs help putting through my sales, we’ll just have to get one of the other girls to help her. Even if they are busy with customers. We’ll just let customers wait. Because I’m not allowed to help her like I have capably been doing the past few days. Great plan.

But what really irks me the most is the lopsidedness of the shop! There is ONE person on the selling floor (and when I’m out to lunch there’s NOBODY on the selling floor) but there are going to be FOUR people in the office. Does that make sense to you? It doesn’t make sense to me.

The really nice girl does help out on the floor occasionally, and I’ve thanked her for this, but you’d get the impression that the core of our business was secretarial work, when in actual fact it’s selling furniture.

Oh, and a note to consumers this post-Christmas: It’s not the law that all products be reduced for post-Christmas. And it’s not against the law for the products from your pre-Christmas sale to go back up in price after Christmas.

And finally, a note to the Asians who were looking at the leather lounges: I am paid to know stuff about furniture. If I tell you that a lounge is half-leather, and explain that it means that the parts you sit on and touch are leather and the parts you don’t sit on are vinyl, then this is the truth. Don’t go asking other staff members for their opinions and then complain if they display the same knowledge as me. Oh, and use some mouthwash, your breath smells horrible.

One of the girls who I work with is supreme hot.

She’s very much unavailable. Still, she’s nice to look at (and she’s genuinely nice too).

My employer has decreed that we’re not getting our RDOs this week, and we’re not going to be given a day off in leiu either. We’re getting paid double-time. I think I’d prefer the day off actually, but the extra pay is nice except that I won’t really have any way to use it without a day off!

Merry Christmas. Today I listened to the Hamish & Andy CD, which was pretty good. My favourite bits were when they did their version of the song “This heart attack”, and right at the end when Andy announced that he was awarding a prize to himself, and the producer meant to play a sound effect of a crowd cheering but instead accidentally played the Cheers theme song.

My sister got me the fifth Darwin Awards book which I’ve now read, and my Busselton grandparents got me a compilation of WW2 novels. My Brisbane grandparents got me an EB Games voucher which will come in handy.

A pair of my shoes (the only pair I have for work) started to split open yesterday under the heavy workload, so unfortunately I have to add a replacement to my “post-Christmas shopping list”.

1. Run Vista, and do not turn UAC off.

2. Keep the automatic updates turned on.

3. If your computer is too old for Vista and you’re still on ancient XP, then create a new account called “Administrator”. Change your normal user account to a limited user account. Whenever you need to install software, switch into the Administrator account. DO NOT RUN FULL-TIME AS ADMINISTRATOR!

4. Make file extensions visible - not sure how to do it in Vista, but do it. In XP it’s in Windows Explorer’s “View > Folder Options” menu. This way, if you download something malicious that masquerades as a picture file (”myboobs.jpg.exe”) you will be able to see that it’s actually an executable.

5. Do not use Internet Explorer or the default Windows mail client. Use Firefox, Flock, Chrome even Opera, as your web browsers. Thunderbird, Eudora or Evolution work well as e-mail clients. Do not use Safari as your web browser.

6. Do not click links in e-mails. Do not download executable files from peer-to-peer or instant messaging networks. Do not download “e-cards” or any executable email attachments.

7. Encrypt your wireless network. If possible, use WPA2 encryption. If not possible, use WPA or WEP encryption. If you and your family are the only ones who use your wireless network, then set up MAC address filtering. Note down all the MAC addresses of your computers and other wifi devices and put them into your router’s “whitelist” of allowed MAC addresses. Set it so that any other MAC addresses cannot access your router.

A MAC address (sometimes referred to as a Hardware Address) looks something like this: 00:15:AF:22:88:65

8. Turn on your firewall. You probably have one in your ADSL modem/router that will do the job properly and without any fuss. If your router doesn’t have one, then install personal firewalls on your computers. Don’t install multiple firewalls as it just increases complexity without adding any security benefits. Also, don’t poke holes in the firewall unless you really need to. And turn off Universal Plug ‘n’ Play (UPnP) on your router - it allows any viruses you might recieve to open ports on your router and invite its buddies in to infect your computer.

9. Unless you like the idea of your computer running like a slug, do not install anti-virus or anti-spyware software.

10. For god’s sake, if you must run Windows, you should AT LEAST run Vista.

8 years after Napster, the RIAA still doesn’t understand why music sales are over the hill. It’s got nothing to do with piracy, although starting lawsuits against downloaders certainly didn’t help sell more CDs.

This is what I posted to Cnet.com:

Want to know why people aren’t buying as much music as they used to? It has nothing to do with the ability to download tracks! Here’s a lyric from an overplayed Britney Spears song that might give you the answer:

Or, listen to the melody line of Jessica Mauboy’s song “Running Back”. During the entire song, she only actually sings three four notes.

There is one more problem, and that’s to do with radio stations killing songs. If you were impressed by Beyonce Knowles’ latest song having only one chord, then I’m sure the novelty will wear off when you hear it three times every workday, five days a week. Even if you don’t get tired of hearing the song, why would you bother to buy a copy when you can hear it being played once every hour on the radio?

Running Internet Explorer 7? Have UAC turned off, or running an administration account on XP? Then you *deserve* to fall victim to the latest security flaw in IE!

The flaw in IE 7 (and apparently, IE 6 too) can cause cracked or maliciously-crafted websites to be able to take control of your computer - or in more technical terms, it enables a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on your computer.

If you have turned UAC off on Vista, or you are running an Administrator account every day on XP, then you really shouldn’t be complaining about Microsoft’s bad security record. People running Vista with its security system intact will be tipped off by a UAC prompt. In fact, if they are running with UAC they will probably not be affected at all by the flaw as Internet Explorer 7 runs under an ultra-limited user account. If you don’t run with UAC, you’ve just effectively installed backdoors and malware on your machine.

Who have you got to blame? Yourself!

If you have a computer running XP that is capable of Vista, then PLEASE upgrade (or switch to Linux). The security benefits are worth it. And don’t, for god’s sake, turn off UAC or enable a root account!

I don’t have to worry about the Internet Explorer flaw. I use Firefox. Yes, a similar problem could possibly be found with Firefox, but it’s less likely due to the open nature of the code. A similar flaw with Firefox wouldn’t do much on my system anyway - I use Linux, and I don’t bypass its security systems, so nobody could use the flaw to install software on my machine or spy on me. The code being executed would only run under my limited user account so there’s not really a lot that it could do.

Why not try downloading and installing Linux as your main operating system? I recommend the Ubuntu distribution, downloadable from www.ubuntu.com.  Be aware that Linux is very different to Windows, but it is no more difficult to use. It is a lot more secure, and very enjoyable to use!

One improvement in Intrepid that I didn’t even notice until 5 minutes ago. The scroll wheel on my mouse can move to the left and right, to give left-right scrolling action. That function of the mouse didn’t work on Hardy, not that I tried to make it work. It works out-of-the-box on Intrepid.

The same function on my Acer Aspire One’s touchpad also works out-of-the-box.

I can’t believe it took me so long to realise that the mouse works

I had a set of really great Panasonic earbuds. I got them with a CD player I used to have, and when I bought my Walkman I kept using them. The audio quality was excellent considering they were bundle-ins.

The other day I noticed that the left channel wasn’t working. Dead.

So now I’m using the ear buds that came with my Walkman; they’re alright but not as good. I’m quite sad about the earphones, as we’ve been through a lot of music together and they were REALLY good quality!

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I went to the Joondalup shopping centre yesterday, to see the new addition. It’s quite good. I stopped in a clothing shop to get presents for some people. I’m kinda regretting it because one of the salespeople there was really pestering me; every minute she’d ask me how I was going. There was a shirt I tried on for myself which “showed the real me” (from one angle made me look thin and weedy, and from another angle made me look fat) so I wanted a larger size. They didn’t have the next size up, and the lady was almost falling over herself to get me the right size from somewhere. Not necessarily in a “good customer service” sort of way, more like a “desperate to make sales” way.

I got a phone call today; she had got in the shirt for me. I’m just going to go in, pay for it and collect it, and then get out - it’s a good little shop but I get a bit creeped out by that saleslady. I don’t especially like having salespeople sell to me (surprising, considering my job!) but this was a bit too much for me.